There is little more than a day left for the verdict of the FIA about the penalty of 30 seconds to Fernando Alonsobut the authorized voices of the ‘Great Circus’ do not stop charging against the body for a penalty that is considered obviously unfair.
Antonio Lobato He has been one of the last to demonstrate before what he considers a “sports sanction since, looking back, there are many antecedents in which sides were not taken.
“The only one I understand is Haas, they see the possibility of a benefit. They are in the business of getting points. I understand it in quotes, because this is no longer a sport, but a business. What I don’t understand is why the regulations in Japan 2016 Hamilton and Leclerc ended without mirrors and nothing happened”, he started in ‘Radio Marca’.
“If you ask a pilot how many times they’ve lost their reflective material, they’ve all lost it at some point. It’s happened many times and the FIA and the stewards have turned a blind eye“, Add.
For the Formula 1 narrator, the fact that the stewards did not indicate to Alonso that he should return to the pits was key: “Fernando is the victim of an accident, he is not to blame, quite a lot that follows. If it is true that when the mirror is tapping, the FIA should have called Fernando to solve it. But if you haven’t called him, you can’t put 30 seconds on it when the GP ends.
“If you haven’t raised the red or black flag, you haven’t thought the car was in a dangerous situation. And if you do consider it, why don’t you consider it Checo Perez and the front wing or Russell’s? Or Verstappen’s wheel lip? There are many questions that have no explanation“, he points out.
Regarding the race itself, Antonio Lobato praises the two-time champion for his resilience: “It was the most beautiful and spectacular of recent times. Everyone was left speechless by what Fernando achieved: the sanction, coming back, the accident with Stroll, saving his skin in that incident that could have been very serious, getting all four wheels on the ground, controlling the car, moving forward, defending one and the other… it was heroic“.
“And suddenly, almost at night and of course treachery, they give him a 30-second penalty. It would have hurt me the same if they had done it to another pilot. It’s a sport sanction“, Add.
Lastly, asked about a possible conspiracy in the FIA against Alonso, Lobato does not believe that there is one, but he does believe that the stewards are “clumsy” when it comes to applying the rules in a “capricious and arbitrary” manner.
“I don’t think so, I don’t think it’s a witch hunt against Fernando. I think they are very clumsy and apply the regulations capriciously and arbitrarily. It’s like the yellow to Baena, it’s something pathetic and unfortunate. Here is where the regulation exists and sometimes it is used and sometimes it is not. From here, the driver who loses the rear view mirror will be claimed. And I’m not saying rearview mirror, but anything. Also, Haas claims 24 minutes late“, ditch.